PROJECTS

The Digital Fix

Disney’s latest live-action remake feels the most manufactured yet; a production-line retread with the weakest of new additions to justify its existence (and bloated running time). Unlike previous retellings of Cinderella, The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast and even this year’s lacklustre Dumbo, the singular voice of its director[...]

The Digital Fix

Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder head up this gloriously sandpaper-dry (anti) romantic comedy as two strangers who realise they’re guests at the same wedding while en route to Paso Robles. Reeves is Frank, a miserable loner. Ryder is Lindsay, a miserable loner. They snipe at each other in the departure lounge, they throw insults[...]

The Digital Fix

Brady Corbet's follow-up to The Childhood of a Leader feels totally at odds with the straight-faced worthiness of his debut; it's a spangled, massively disconcerting odyssey that seems tailor-made to annoy as many people as possible - and is all the better for it. Raffey Cassidy and Natalie Portman star as the tormented Celeste, a singing prodigy[...]

The Digital Fix

Based on Rhidian Brook’s 2013 novel of the same name, this decidedly unexceptional post-war drama finds an unlikely romance in the heart of a decimated Hamburg. Keira Knightley and Jason Clarke are Rachel and Lewis Morgan: Lewis is a British colonel tasked with rooting out surviving Nazi sympathisers, [...]

The Digital Fix

Step aside, Aquaman; the so-bad-it’s-good arena finds a new reigning champion in this bedazzling film from director Robert Rodriguez and co-writer James Cameron. A bizarre cybernetic fusion of Pinocchio and Ghost in the Shell, this adaptation of Yukito Kishiro’s graphic novel series begins with a kindly doctor (Christoph Waltz) [...]

The Digital Fix

What a joyous and utterly silly romp this film is: a sequel to 2014’s blockbusting adventure, which demonstrates once again that - despite a Han Solo-shaped bump in the road - the dynamic duo of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller shows no signs of slowing down.The brief peace enjoyed by Emmett (Chris Pratt), Lucy (Elizabeth Banks), Batman (Will Arnett) and the rest after the fall of Lord Business[...]

The Digital Fix

This follow-up to Unbreakable and Split that sees writer-director M. Night Shyamalan poised to make a triumphant return should be a cause for celebration. Instead, it quickly becomes an embarrassing (and lengthy) showcase for all his worst traits.

Returning here are Bruce Willis as the sensitive but super-strong [...]

chrisatthepictures.blogspot.com

Well, here’s a Christmas miracle: after a decade of increasingly puerile cruelty, the Bay/Spielberg Transformers franchise finds a heart. Hailee Steinfeld leads this 80s-set prequel as Charlie, a budding mechanic who discovers the titular robot in a junkyard. Disguised as a rusty Volkswagen Beetle, [...]

chrisatthepictures.blogspot.com

Jason Momoa’s effortless charisma and a rich score from Rupert Gregson-Williams are all that prevent the DC universe’s latest voyage from totally capsizing. In all fairness, neither Aquaman or its leading man can be blamed for the reverse-engineered structure of Warner’s answer to the MCU[...]

chrisatthepictures.blogspot.com

Welcome to this first edition of The Streaming Pile; my excuse to use a good pun thinly disguised as a monthly column discussing the latest crop of Netflix', er, 'cinematic' content. This month saw the release of three fairly high-profile films (as opposed to the usual strain of Friday night horror dreck): Operation Finale, 22 July, and Apostle[...]

chrisatthepictures.blogspot.com

Damien Chazelle makes it a hat-trick with this extraordinary film that, appropriately, puts the man first. Ostensibly depicting the trials and tribulations of NASA’s Gemini and Apollo programs, First Man reveals itself to be about those of Neil Armstrong, in a refreshing break from space films that are less concerned[...]

chrisatthepictures.blogspot.com

“Two for the...uh...that one with...” the middle-aged gentleman stood across the till from me turned desperately to his partner, who returned his blank look. I waited. The silence stretched. The queue fidgeted. “Oh, bloody hell, what’s it called again?” he gesticulated to no-one in particular, before clapping a hand to his forehead. Sighing internally, I scanned my screen for the list of possible titles[...]

chrisatthepictures.blogspot.com

Here is Sony Pictures' second attempt to build a Marvel universe to rival Disney's (stop laughing, they're deadly serious). Venom - seemingly dumped on our world from a rip in the space-time continuum splicing the year 2005 with the present day - sits comfortably alongside the likes of Elektra, Ghost Rider and Daredevil. [...]